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How do you go about teaching the fundamental hand position (Slightly curved hand and fingers, level wrist, firm fingertips, imagining you are holding a bird or bubble in your hand), to double jointed students?

I am no orthopedist, but in my experience people who are double jointed have all sorts of crazy stuff going on with their fingers - they are bending every which way, and have a more difficult time maintaing a solid, firm hand position. I recognize their condition, and am hesitant to force anything upon them which may seem so foreign to their physical make-up.

Any experience with this?

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Yes, I have a lot of experience dealing with this issue.

Just let the student play as curved as possible. For some kids, that means flat fingers. Don't fight nature.

If you have brainwashed parents who INSIST on seeing curved fingers, then send them to one of those "music schools" that insist on curved fingers.

I missed this. Ditto, also a lot of experience with this.

I had one girl with spindly fingers who looked like Olive Oil (from Popeye). She was never serious about playing, but she was not a bad player either. If she attempted to curve her fingers in what I think would be a normal way, she had to clench, and that made things much worse. We just accepted her weird hands and had fun with music.

There are a lot of people who are "in between". They don't play naturally with the shape any of us would prefer, but they get there in time. I don't know how it works exactly, nor do I wish to. It's too complicated. I just know that some people can overcome it, and some people can't.

At least this is my experience.

I think it's best to have the student stand and let their arms hang down loosely at their sides. Then have them slowly bend at the elbow and raise their hands up without changing their shape to observe what the natural curve of their fingers looks like. This is the shape they will want to use for the most part. Sometimes certain pieces or passages will not allow this shape, but the important thing is to always return to this shape after each note if possible, or at the very least try and achieve this shape in the other fingers while one finger is playing.